Hybrid location determination for wireless communication device

ABSTRACT

Hybrid location determination for wireless communication device. Various services that may be used by a wireless communication device within a particular location may be referred to as location based services (LBS). As such, means by which the location of a wireless communication device that may use such available services, within such a locale, is made by using more than one type of location determination approach. For example, a wireless communication device includes communication capability (e.g., RX and TX) in accordance with a first communication protocol (e.g., Bluetooth) and also includes a communication capability (e.g., RX only) in accordance with a second communication protocol (e.g., WiFi/WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)). The RX capability is operative to assist in location determination for the wireless communication device based on knowledge of at least one wireless communication device that communicates with the wireless communication device.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENTS/PATENT APPLICATIONS ProvisionalPriority Claims

The present U.S. Utility Patent Application claims priority pursuant to35 U.S.C. §119(e) to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applicationwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety andmade part of the present U.S. Utility Patent Application for allpurposes:

1. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/181,067, entitled “Hybridlocation determination for wireless communication device,” (AttorneyDocket No. BP20526), filed May 26, 2009, pending.

Incorporation by Reference

The following U.S. Utility Patent Applications/U.S. Patents are herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entirety and made part of thepresent U.S. Utility Patent Application for all purposes:

1. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 10/243,857, entitled“Channel estimation in a spread spectrum receiver,” (Attorney Docket No.BP2238), filed Sep. 13, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,301,993 B2, issued onNov. 27, 2007.

2. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/387,340, entitled “Methodand system for antenna and radio front-end topologies for asystem-on-a-chip (SOC) device that combines bluetooth and IEEE 802.11b/g WLAN technologies,” (Attorney Docket No. 16620US02), filed Mar. 23,2006, pending, which claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e) tothe following U.S. Provisional Patent Application which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety and made part of thepresent U.S. Utility Patent Application for all purposes:

-   -   a. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/686,482, entitled        “Method and system for antenna and radio front-end topologies        for a system-on-a-chip (SOC) device that combines bluetooth and        IEEE 802.11 b/g WLAN technologies,” (Attorney Docket No.        16620US02), filed Jun. 01, 2005, now expired.

3. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/751,848, entitled “SharedLNA and PA gain control in a wireless device,” (Attorney Docket No.BP6152), filed May 22, 2007, pending.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to wireless communication devices; and,more particularly, it relates to determining location of such wirelesscommunication devices for use, at least in part, to determining whichlocation based services (LBSs) are available for use by such wirelesscommunication devices.

2. Description of Related Art

Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire linedcommunications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices.Such communication systems range from national and/or internationalcellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-homewireless networks. Each type of communication system is constructed, andhence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards.For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordancewith one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11,Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access(CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS),multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), radio frequencyidentification (RFID), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE),General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), and/or variations thereof.

Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wirelesscommunication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio,personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptopcomputer, home entertainment equipment, RFID reader, RFID tag, etc.,communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communicationdevices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-pointcommunications), the participating wireless communication devices tunetheir receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g.,one of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wirelesscommunication system or a particular RF frequency for some systems) andcommunicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications,each wireless communication device communicates directly with anassociated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or anassociated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wirelessnetwork) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connectionbetween the wireless communication devices, the associated base stationsand/or associated access points communicate with each other directly,via a system controller, via the public switch telephone network, viathe Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.

For each wireless communication device to participate in wirelesscommunications, it includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiverand transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g.,a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communicationnetworks, RF modem, etc.). As is known, the receiver is coupled to anantenna and includes a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediatefrequency stages, a filtering stage, and a data recovery stage. The lownoise amplifier receives inbound RF signals via the antenna andamplifies then. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix theamplified RF signals with one or more local oscillations to convert theamplified RF signal into baseband signals or intermediate frequency (IF)signals. The filtering stage filters the baseband signals or the IFsignals to attenuate unwanted out of band signals to produce filteredsignals. The data recovery stage recovers raw data from the filteredsignals in accordance with the particular wireless communicationstandard.

As is also known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, oneor more intermediate frequency stages, and a power amplifier. The datamodulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordancewith a particular wireless communication standard. The one or moreintermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or morelocal oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier amplifiesthe RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna.

While transmitters generally include a data modulation stage, one ormore IF stages, and a power amplifier, the particular implementation ofthese elements is dependent upon the data modulation scheme of thestandard being supported by the transceiver. For example, if thebaseband modulation scheme is Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK), thedata modulation stage functions to convert digital words into quadraturemodulation symbols, which have a constant amplitude and varying phases.The IF stage includes a phase locked loop (PLL) that generates anoscillation at a desired RF frequency, which is modulated based on thevarying phases produced by the data modulation stage. The phasemodulated RF signal is then amplified by the power amplifier inaccordance with a transmit power level setting to produce a phasemodulated RF signal.

As another example, if the data modulation scheme is 8-PSK (phase shiftkeying), the data modulation stage functions to convert digital wordsinto symbols having varying amplitudes and varying phases. The IF stageincludes a phase locked loop (PLL) that generates an oscillation at adesired RF frequency, which is modulated based on the varying phasesproduced by the data modulation stage. The phase modulated RF signal isthen amplified by the power amplifier in accordance with the varyingamplitudes to produce a phase and amplitude modulated RF signal.

As yet another example, if the data modulation scheme is x-QAM (16, 64,128, 256 quadrature amplitude modulation), the data modulation stagefunctions to convert digital words into Cartesian coordinate symbols(e.g., having an in-phase signal component and a quadrature signalcomponent). The IF stage includes mixers that mix the in-phase signalcomponent with an in-phase local oscillation and mix the quadraturesignal component with a quadrature local oscillation to produce twomixed signals. The mixed signals are summed together and filtered toproduce an RF signal that is subsequently amplified by a poweramplifier.

As the desire for wireless communication devices to support multiplestandards continues, recent trends include the desire to integrate morefunctions on to a single chip. However, such desires have goneunrealized when it comes to implementing baseband and RF on the samechip for multiple wireless communication standards. In addition, manycomponents and/or modules within the components employed within suchcommunication devices and wireless communication devices include manyoff-chip elements.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to apparatus and methods of operationthat are further described in the following Brief Description of theSeveral Views of the Drawings, the Detailed Description of theInvention, and the claims. Other features and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following detailed descriptionof the invention made with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a wirelesscommunication system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a wirelesscommunication device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment of a wirelesscommunication device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment of a wirelesscommunication device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of regions in whichvarious location based services (LBSs) are provided with respect tolocations of access points (APs), respectively.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of triangulation as maybe performed within a wireless communication device based oncommunications received from three or more APs and the associatedreceived signal strength indication (RSSI) measures associatedtherewith.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of connectivity between awireless communication device and various other communication devicesvia a network segment and/or other communication paths.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of format of a managementframe.

FIG. 9A, FIG. 9B, FIG. 10A, FIG. 10B, FIG. 11A, FIG. 11B, FIG. 12A, andFIG. 12B, illustrates various embodiments of methods that may beperformed within a wireless communication device to process receivedcommunications.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment of awireless communication device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Location based services (LBSS) continue to grow in availability. SuchLBSs may be viewed as those particular communication services providedwithin a particular location. Determining the location of such acommunication device is employed in accordance with the process ofdetermining which services are then available to that communicationdevice.

The use of LBSs continues to become ever-increasing in view of theintegration of multiple wireless technologies onto various wirelesscommunication devices (e.g., mobile platforms, portable wirelesscommunication devices, etc.). As such, an improved means for performinglocation determination (using hybrid location techniques) is presentedherein. Such a hybrid approach is inherently improved when compared torelying on a single technology, such as global positioning system (GPS)alone to determine the location of such a wireless communication device.

This determined Location information is used to offer location basedservices (LBS). One example of such a hybrid technique as describedherein is based on knowledge of proximate wireless local area network(WLAN/WiFi) (or alternatively referred to only as WLAN) access point(AP) as determined based on an associated IEEE 802.11 MAC addressprovided to a WiFi-enabled wireless communication device (e.g.,smartphone) for use in determining the location of such a wirelesscommunication device.

The market penetration of Bluetooth into various wireless communicationdevices (e.g., mobile phone devices) is extremely high versus thepenetration of WiFi, which is still a fairly nascent market for avariety of reasons (e.g., there are limited use cases involving the useof WiFi in mobile devices to justify the significant additional die areaand power consumption penalties associated with adding full WiFicapabilities to the mobile device).

Therefore, for the large market of Bluetooth-enabled devices that do nothave embedded WiFi capability, only a reduced functionality/minimumsubset of WLAN/WiFi functionality is implemented or embedded in aBluetooth capable communication device in order to obtain the requiredMAC addresses from a WLAN AP (e.g., an IEEE 802.11 2.4 GHz WiFi AccessPoint, or one operating in accordance with a different version of theIEEE 802.11 standards and using a different frequency).

Generally speaking, no WLAN/WiFi transmitter capability is required atall within the communication device, and of all the modulation types andrates supported by the evolving IEEE 802.11 standard, the only WLAN/WiFireceiver capability receive implemented is for the Barker-spread 1 Mbpsrate, differential binary phase shift keying (DBPSK) modulation that isrequired to obtain the information relevant to location (i.e. mediaaccess control (MAC) address and/or signal strength indication (RSSI)associated with communications from such a WLAN AP).

Only a very slight modification (which translates into only a verymodest increase in die area) of an existing Bluetooth radio receiver'sdesign is made to also support processing of WLAN/WiFi beacons from aWLAN AP and from which the relevant location-related information can beextracted.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a wirelesscommunication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 includesa plurality of base stations and/or access points 112, 116, a pluralityof wireless communication devices 118-132 and a network hardwarecomponent 134. Note that the network hardware 134, which may be arouter, switch, bridge, modem, system controller, etc., provides a widearea network connection 142 for the communication system 100. Furthernote that the wireless communication devices 118-132 may be laptop hostcomputers 118 and 126, personal digital assistant hosts 120 and 130,personal computer hosts 124 and 132 and/or cellular telephone hosts 122and 128.

Wireless communication devices 122, 123, and 124 are located within anindependent basic service set (IBSS) area and communicate directly(i.e., point to point). In this configuration, these devices 122, 123,and 124 may only communicate with each other. To communicate with otherwireless communication devices within the system 100 or to communicateoutside of the system 100, the devices 122, 123, and/or 124 need toaffiliate with one of the base stations or access points 112 or 116.

The base stations or access points 112, 116 are located within basicservice set (BSS) areas 111 and 113, respectively, and are operablycoupled to the network hardware 134 via local area network connections136, 138. Such a connection provides the base station or access point112-116 with connectivity to other devices within the system 100 andprovides connectivity to other networks via the WAN connection 142. Tocommunicate with the wireless communication devices within its BSS 111or 113, each of the base stations or access points 112-116 has anassociated antenna or antenna array. For instance, base station oraccess point 112 wirelessly communicates with wireless communicationdevices 118 and 120 while base station or access point 116 wirelesslycommunicates with wireless communication devices 126-132. Typically, thewireless communication devices register with a particular base stationor access point 112, 116 to receive services from the communicationsystem 100.

Typically, base stations are used for cellular telephone systems (e.g.,advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system formobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), localmulti-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-pointdistribution systems (MMDS), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution(EDGE), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), high-speed downlink packetaccess (HSDPA), high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA and/or variationsthereof) and like-type systems, while access points are used for in-homeor in-building wireless networks (e.g., IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, ZigBee,any other type of radio frequency based network protocol and/orvariations thereof). Regardless of the particular type of communicationsystem, each wireless communication device includes a built-in radioand/or is coupled to a radio.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment 100 of a wirelesscommunication device that includes the host device 118-132 and anassociated radio 260. For cellular telephone hosts, the radio 260 is abuilt-in component. For personal digital assistants hosts, laptop hosts,and/or personal computer hosts, the radio 260 may be built-in or anexternally coupled component.

As illustrated, the host device 118-132 includes a processing module250, memory 252, a radio interface 254, an input interface 258, and anoutput interface 256. The processing module 250 and memory 252 executethe corresponding instructions that are typically done by the hostdevice. For example, for a cellular telephone host device, theprocessing module 250 performs the corresponding communication functionsin accordance with a particular cellular telephone standard.

The radio interface 254 allows data to be received from and sent to theradio 260. For data received from the radio 260 (e.g., inbound data),the radio interface 254 provides the data to the processing module 250for further processing and/or routing to the output interface 256. Theoutput interface 256 provides connectivity to an output display devicesuch as a display, monitor, speakers, etc., such that the received datamay be displayed. The radio interface 254 also provides data from theprocessing module 250 to the radio 260. The processing module 250 mayreceive the outbound data from an input device such as a keyboard,keypad, microphone, etc., via the input interface 258 or generate thedata itself. For data received via the input interface 258, theprocessing module 250 may perform a corresponding host function on thedata and/or route it to the radio 260 via the radio interface 254.

Radio 260 includes a host interface 262, digital receiver processingmodule 264, an analog-to-digital converter 266, a high pass and low passfilter module 268, an IF mixing down conversion stage 270, a receiverfilter 271, a low noise amplifier 272, a transmitter/receiver switch273, a local oscillation module 274, memory 275, a digital transmitterprocessing module 276, a digital-to-analog converter 278, afiltering/gain module 280, an IF mixing up conversion stage 282, a poweramplifier 284, a transmitter filter module 285, a channel bandwidthadjust module 287, and an antenna 286. The antenna 286 may be a singleantenna that is shared by the transmit and receive paths as regulated bythe Tx/Rx switch 273, or may include separate antennas for the transmitpath and receive path. The antenna implementation will depend on theparticular standard to which the wireless communication device iscompliant.

The digital receiver processing module 264 and the digital transmitterprocessing module 276, in combination with operational instructionsstored in memory 275, execute digital receiver functions and digitaltransmitter functions, respectively. The digital receiver functionsinclude, but are not limited to, digital intermediate frequency tobaseband conversion, demodulation, constellation demapping, decoding,and/or descrambling. The digital transmitter functions include, but arenot limited to, scrambling, encoding, constellation mapping, modulation,and/or digital baseband to IF conversion. The digital receiver andtransmitter processing modules 264 and 276 may be implemented using ashared processing device, individual processing devices, or a pluralityof processing devices. Such a processing device may be a microprocessor,micro-controller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, centralprocessing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logicdevice, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digitalcircuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals (analog and/ordigital) based on operational instructions. The memory 275 may be asingle memory device or a plurality of memory devices. Such a memorydevice may be a read-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory,non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, and/orany device that stores digital information. Note that when theprocessing module 264 and/or 276 implements one or more of its functionsvia a state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logiccircuitry, the memory storing the corresponding operational instructionsis embedded with the circuitry comprising the state machine, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry.

In operation, the radio 260 receives outbound data 294 from the hostdevice via the host interface 262. The host interface 262 routes theoutbound data 294 to the digital transmitter processing module 276,which processes the outbound data 294 in accordance with a particularwireless communication standard (e.g., IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, ZigBee,WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), any other typeof radio frequency based network protocol and/or variations thereofetc.) to produce outbound baseband signals 296. The outbound basebandsignals 296 will be digital base-band signals (e.g., have a zero IF) ordigital low IF signals, where the low IF typically will be in thefrequency range of one hundred kHz (kilo-Hertz) to a few MHz(Mega-Hertz).

The digital-to-analog converter 278 converts the outbound basebandsignals 296 from the digital domain to the analog domain. Thefiltering/gain module 280 filters and/or adjusts the gain of the analogsignals prior to providing it to the IF mixing stage 282. The IF mixingstage 282 converts the analog baseband or low IF signals into RF signalsbased on a transmitter local oscillation 283 provided by localoscillation module 274. The power amplifier 284 amplifies the RF signalsto produce outbound RF signals 298, which are filtered by thetransmitter filter module 285. The antenna 286 transmits the outbound RFsignals 298 to a targeted device such as a base station, an access pointand/or another wireless communication device.

The radio 260 also receives inbound RF signals 288 via the antenna 286,which were transmitted by a base station, an access point, or anotherwireless communication device. The antenna 286 provides the inbound RFsignals 288 to the receiver filter module 271 via the Tx/Rx switch 273,where the Rx filter 271 bandpass filters the inbound RF signals 288. TheRx filter 271 provides the filtered RF signals to low noise amplifier272, which amplifies the signals 288 to produce an amplified inbound RFsignals. The low noise amplifier 272 provides the amplified inbound RFsignals to the IF mixing module 270, which directly converts theamplified inbound RF signals into an inbound low IF signals or basebandsignals based on a receiver local oscillation 281 provided by localoscillation module 274. The down conversion module 270 provides theinbound low IF signals or baseband signals to the filtering/gain module268. The high pass and low pass filter module 268 filters, based onsettings provided by the channel bandwidth adjust module 287, theinbound low IF signals or the inbound baseband signals to producefiltered inbound signals.

The analog-to-digital converter 266 converts the filtered inboundsignals from the analog domain to the digital domain to produce inboundbaseband signals 290, where the inbound baseband signals 290 will bedigital base-band signals or digital low IF signals, where the low IFtypically will be in the frequency range of one hundred kHz to a fewMHz. The digital receiver processing module 264, based on settingsprovided by the channel bandwidth adjust module 287, decodes,descrambles, demaps, and/or demodulates the inbound baseband signals 290to recapture inbound data 292 in accordance with the particular wirelesscommunication standard being implemented by radio 260. The hostinterface 262 provides the recaptured inbound data 292 to the hostdevice 118-132 via the radio interface 254.

As one of average skill in the art will appreciate, the wirelesscommunication device of the embodiment 200 of FIG. 2 may be implementedusing one or more integrated circuits. For example, the host device maybe implemented on one integrated circuit, the digital receiverprocessing module 264, the digital transmitter processing module 276 andmemory 275 may be implemented on a second integrated circuit, and theremaining components of the radio 260, less the antenna 286, may beimplemented on a third integrated circuit. As an alternate example, theradio 260 may be implemented on a single integrated circuit. As yetanother example, the processing module 250 of the host device and thedigital receiver and transmitter processing modules 264 and 276 may be acommon processing device implemented on a single integrated circuit.Further, the memory 252 and memory 275 may be implemented on a singleintegrated circuit and/or on the same integrated circuit as the commonprocessing modules of processing module 250 and the digital receiver andtransmitter processing module 264 and 276.

Any of the various embodiments of communication device that may beimplemented within various communication systems can incorporatefunctionality to perform communication via more than one standard,protocol, or other predetermined means of communication. For example, asingle communication device, designed in accordance with certain aspectsof the invention, can include functionality to perform communication inaccordance with a first protocol, a second protocol, and/or a thirdprotocol, and so on. These various protocols may be WiMAX (WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access) protocol, a protocol thatcomplies with a wireless local area network (WLAN/WiFi) (e.g., one ofthe IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer) 802.11protocols such as 802.11a, 802.11b, and/or 802.11g), a Bluetoothprotocol, or any other predetermined means by which wirelesscommunication may be effectuated.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment 300 of awireless communication device 310. The wireless communication device 310includes a wireless local area network (WLAN/WiFi) receiver (RX)circuitry 320. In some embodiments, the wireless communication device310 includes a location determination circuitry 330 (which may include amemory module 330 a that is operative to store one or more maps,database components, etc.), a Bluetooth (BT) transceiver circuitry 340,and up to an n-th location based service (LBS) communication circuitries350 (i.e., one or both of RX circuitry and/or transmitter (TX)circuitry). Each of these radio circuitries is coupled to a basebandcircuitry that is operative to perform various digital signal processingfunctions as well.

One or more of the components within the wireless communication device310 may be implemented within a single integrated circuit 310 a, or theymay alternatively be implemented in two or more integrated circuits,and/or one or more printed circuit boards. The wireless communicationdevice 310 is operative to communicate with a WLAN access point (AP) 370a. Depending on which components are particularly implemented within thewireless communication device 310 (i.e., by including a locationdetermination circuitry 330), the wireless communication device 310 mayalso be operative to communicate with a location service communicationdevice 370 b (e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) satellite typelocation based servicing communication device). Also, in embodimentswhere the wireless communication device 310 includes a BT transceiver340, the wireless communication device 310 may also be operative tocommunicate with another BT communication device 370 c. Clearly, inembodiments where the wireless communication device 310 includes an n-thLBS communication circuitry 350, the wireless communication device 310may also be operative to communicate with an n-th communication device370 n (e.g., that operates in accordance with an n-th communicationprotocol).

The WLAN RX circuitry 320 is a reduced or minimum functionality receivercircuitry that need not include any transmitter (TX) capability at all.This reduced/minimum functionality RX is operative to perform WLANbeacon processing, as shown in a block 320 a. This minimal amount ofprocessing of only a portion of the communications provided from theWLAN AP 370 a includes extracting the media access control (MAC) addressand/or the received signal strength indication (RSSI) measuresassociated with such communications.

In many or most situations, the location of an AP is known. Suchinformation is communicated with and may be extracted from the MACaddress associated with a communication from such an AP. In terms ofdetermining location of the wireless communication device 310, thedetermined location of the WLAN AP 370 a may be used to make an estimateof the location of the wireless communication device 310. For example,if the wireless communication device 310 is operative to communicatewith the WLAN AP 370 a, then it is certainly located within a sufficientproximity of the WLAN AP 370 a (whose location is known). As such, apreliminary estimate of the location of the wireless communicationdevice 310 may be made.

Once the location of the WLAN AP 370 a or the wireless communicationdevice 310 is known, then that known location may be used to determinethe various communication services that may be available in that localefor use by the wireless communication device 310. The wirelesscommunication device 310 may then use one or more of such LBSs.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment 400 of awireless communication device 410. This embodiment 400 has somesimilarities to the previous embodiment 300. For example, wirelesscommunication device 410 may be implemented using a single integratedcircuit 410 a, one or more integrated circuits, printed circuit boards,etc. Also, depending on which components are particularly implementedwithin the wireless communication device 410 (i.e., by including alocation determination circuitry 430), the wireless communication device410 may also be operative to communicate with a location servicecommunication device 470 b (e.g., a GPS satellite type location basedservicing communication device). In embodiments where the wirelesscommunication device 410 includes an n-th LBS communication circuitry450, the wireless communication device 410 may also be operative tocommunicate with an n-th communication device 470 n (e.g., that operatesin accordance with an n-th communication protocol). Each of these radiocircuitries is coupled to a baseband circuitry that is operative toperform various digital signal processing functions as well.

However, at least one difference being that the wireless communicationdevice 410 is that a BT transceiver circuitry 440 includes a BT TXcircuitry 440 a and a BT RX circuitry 440 b (that is modified withrespect to a conventional or typical BT RX circuitry to allow processingof beacons provided by WLAN AP 470 a).

There is significant re-use or sharing of processing resources,circuitry, etc. within the BT RX circuitry 440 b to perform also theprocessing of beacons provided by the WLAN AP 470 a to process only aportion of the communications provided from the WLAN AP 470 a includesextracting the MAC address and/or the RSSI measures associated with suchcommunications. In other words, there is very little modification of theBT RX circuitry 440 b to enable the ability to perform processing ofcommunications provided from the WLAN AP 470 a. For example, the one ormore antennae of the wireless communication device 410, the low noiseamplifier (LNA) stages and automatic gain control (AGC) stages, one ormore mixers, etc. of the BT RX circuitry 440 b are employed commonly forprocessing both BT communications as well as for WLAN communications.Even the filter structure within the BT RX circuitry 440 b is same forboth BT communications as well as for WLAN communications (with onlydifference being the values of the coefficients used for each). Oneadditional functional block or circuitry employed to process the beaconsprovided in accordance with WLAN communications is a SYNC functionalblock or circuitry, which operates to remove Barker spreading and toidentify the strongest signal path, based on which frame timing isdetermined.

Generally speaking, by using knowledge of a proximate WLAN AP (e.g., asdetermined by the IEEE 802.11 MAC address associated therewith), thendetermination of which LBSs that may be available within the locale ofthe WLAN AP or the wireless communication device (whose location may beestimated by its proximity to the known location of a WLAN AP with whichthe wireless communication device may communicate [i.e., receive beaconsfrom]). RSSI information may also e measured, for applications wherethis additional piece of information is useful (e.g., in accordance withtriangulation using communications received from two or more WLAN APs.

In accordance with performing hybrid position determination, an A-GPSmay achieve a faster time to fix first (TTFF) on a Bluetooth and GPC(BT+GPC) processing core combination.

Referring to the memory 330 a or 430 a of the previous embodiments, awireless communication device (or user operating such wirelesscommunication device) may download (e.g., via a wireless networkconnection, a cable connection, BT connection, or other communicationconnection) a WLAN AP database for a particular geographic region inwhich the wireless communication device or user is located (e.g.,resides, in which the user is traveling, etc.).

Alternatively, if the size of a much larger database (e.g., nationwidedatabase) is not too large, the wireless communication device could bepre-loaded with such a larger database (e.g., of a portion or all of anation, of a portion of a continent [such as Western Europe], etc.). Inorder to improve TTFF, the device would then be able to map the AP's MACaddress to its corresponding GPS co-ordinates of the AP (e.g., asconfirmed with respect to the database). This would operate to give theco-located GPS operative device a good head-start towards initialacquisition in terms of location determination thereby.

In accordance with performing location determination for a communicationdevice that is only BT capable when no collocated GPS is available,those LBSs that are nearby may also be identified. For example, thismode of operation gives the device some initial clue about itslocation/whereabouts (e.g., consider Apple's iPod Touch). Therein, theiPhone and iTouch use software from Skyhook Wireless for this purpose.As mentioned above, RSSI information may be used to further refine theaccuracy of the wireless communication device's location estimate (e.g.,with respect to triangulation).

WLAN APs, operating in accordance with IEEE 802.11, typically operate ata particular frequency (e.g., 2.4 GHz for IEEE 802.11b, 5 ; GHz for IEEE802.11a, etc.) and transmit beacons at the 1 Mbps rate, using DBPSKmodulation with direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) spreading atapproximately 1 beacon every 100 ms. The MAC address can be obtainedfrom the MAC header as well as the service set identifier (SSID)information, which is embedded in the frame body field of the IEEE802.11 management frame, if SSID is useful. In general, all demodulatedWLAN bits from the beacon could simply be dumped to memory, in order forFirmware to post-process this information in order to obtain the MACaddress and other relevant information. RSSI may also be measured on thebeacons frames; for array antenna based platforms, the measurementaccuracy would be improved even in disperse channels. In accordance withcertain WLAN/WiFi service providers, some of them maintain databases ofWiFi APs along with their location coordinates, that will be associatedwith the MAC addresses extracted from communications from such WLAN APs.

As referred to above, only a reduced or minimum amount of IEEE 802.11receiver functionality is employed or needed to accommodate theprocessing of beacons provided from such a WLAN AP.

With respect to the radio circuitry within such a wireless communicationdevice, the radio receiver path need only be modified in a very minorway to accommodate the 20 MHz wide WLAN signal bandwidth, which iscurrently narrower to remove ambient country identifier (ACI) andblockers for Bluetooth. The first AADF stages of the radio receiver pathhave wider than 20 MHz bandwidths and the DS oversampling is high enoughto obtain adequate dynamic range.

With respect to the baseband processing circuitry within such a wirelesscommunication device, the automatic gain control (AGC) circuitry, theIEEE 802.11 frame detection, 11 MHz (single-sided bandwidth) channelselect filtering, initial time and frequency correction, followed bychannel estimation and demodulation of bits is the normal sequence offlow for some IEEE 802.11b receivers.

To simplify the baseband processing, there is no need to include anyRAKE matched filtering. From the output of the Barker Matched Filter(BMF) based SYNC block, the strongest path may simply be chosen (i.e.,instead of doing any combining processing therein). For more dispersechannels, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) penalty will increase bytaking this short-cut, but in typical cases there may be a minor loss ofperformance (e.g., 2 to 3 dB in some embodiments). This minorperformance loss may be compensated by the fact that in order tominimize the hidden-node problem, AP's (usually connected to wall-poweroutlets providing 120 V AC at approximately 60 Hz) transmit at higher(and at fixed) transmit levels, than wireless stations (STAs).

Thus, a simplified baseband hardware module or circuitry of such awireless communication device may simply comprise of a BMF (simple,22-tap FIR filter running at 22 MHz). Also, the SYNC block simply picksthe strongest path component. Early-late time tracking is performed onsamples out of the BMF. Bluetooth's Early-Late hardware can be reusedfor time tracking purposes. Basically, the BMF gives synchronization towithin 1 chip and then time tracking is done to reduce thesynchronization error further. Carrier frequency offset (CFO), due todifferences in the transmitter and receiver local oscillators (Los),results in a constant phase error at the output of the demodulator andcan also be removed by reusing BT circuitry. Also, the start of framedelimiter (SFD) is also used from the frame sync.

A BT demodulator may be modified (with only a slight modificationrequired) to perform DBPSK demodulation of the beacons provided by aWLAN AP. The IEEE 802.11 receive digital processing is based onoperation of I/Q samples at 22 Ms/s, so a sample rate conversion to 22Ms/s would need to be performed. The rate adaptor hardware in thecurrent BT design is able to provide this.

Also, the very same configurable channel select filter as used incurrent BT design may be employed for processing the beacons provided bythe WLAN AP. However it is noted that this will need to be clocked at ahigher frequency to accommodate the 20 MHz signal.

As can be seen, the vast majority of components within the BT receivermay be also used to perform the processing of received beacons from theWLAN AP. The BT receiver architecture lends itself well to a significantlevel of sharing for use in BT communications. For example, sharing forthe processing of both BT and WLAN communications may be made withrespect to the one or more antennae, LNA stages and the AGC logic,mixer(s), etc. and even filter structures can remain the same (with theonly changes being to the filter coefficient values), in order tosupport either the narrow band Bluetooth signals or wide band WLANsignals. The main digital block needed is the SYNC block to remove theBarker spreading and identify the strongest signal path, based on whichframe timing is determined.

Also, it is noted that there may be only a need to store demodulatedbits from the beacons themselves (e.g., and no need to store any otherbits/communications from a WLAN AP or STA transmissions). Therefore,hardware-assist may also be provided to ascertain that the frame is infact a beacon, before dumping such bits to memory. IEEE 802.11 framesconsist of a MAC header, followed by a variable length frame body andthen a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC). Beacons can be identifiedby the all 1s destination MAC address, which is used for broadcast. Ifthe MAC address indicates a beacon, then the remainder of the frameshould continue being demodulated. Alternatively, if the MAC addressdoes not indicate a beacon, then the remainder of the frame could bedumped/discarded.

The hardware-assist is employed to extract the frame durationinformation from the MAC header, in order to know how long to continuethe demodulation processing. However, the CRC checking (FCS) can beperformed in firmware, if desired in some embodiments.

Moreover, there is no need to support carrier sense multipleaccess/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol, since such wirelesscommunication device operates as a passive, listen-only sniffer thatdoes not ever transmit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment 500 of regions in whichvarious location based services (LBSs) are provided with respect tolocations of access points (APs), respectively. When a wirelesscommunication device is operative to communicate with (at least receivebeacons from) an AP, then an estimate of the location of the wirelesscommunication device may be made based on its proximity to the AP. Withsuch knowledge of a location of a wireless communication device or an APwith which the wireless communication device communicates, the locationbased services (LBSs) provided within the vicinity or near the locationof the wireless communication device or the AP.

For example, each of the wireless communication devices 510, 510 a, and510 b are located within proximity to be able to communicate with (atleast receive beacons from) each of the AP 520 and the AP 520 a. Assuch, the determined locations of the APs 520 and 520 a (e.g., based onthe MAC addresses of the beacons provided there from), LBSs providedwithin such vicinities may be presented for availability and use by thewireless communication devices 510, 510 a, and 510 b.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment 600 of triangulation asmay be performed within a wireless communication device based oncommunications received from three or more APs 620, 620 a, 620 b and theassociated received signal strength indication (RSSI) measuresassociated therewith.

Information associated with communications provided from three or moreAPs 620, 620 a, 620 b (or even more APs not specifically shown in thediagram) may be employed to determine the location of a wirelesscommunication device receiving such communications. Based on theattenuation of signals as they propagate from a first wirelesscommunication device to a second wireless communication device, the RSSImeasures associated with such signals may be used to determine how faraway a particular WLAN AP is. For example, when the original signalstrength is known (e.g., when transmitted from the AP), and then whenthe received signal strength is determined (e.g., RSSI measure whenreceived at the wireless communication device), then the difference inpower or energy (e.g., based on the attenuation during propagation) ofthose two signals may be correlated to the distance between the wirelesscommunication device and the AP.

When RSSI measures associated with communications from three or more APsare employed, then triangulation of the two or more signals may be madeto estimate more precisely the location of the wireless communicationdevice. For examples, based on the intersections of the vectorsassociated with the communications from three or more communicationdevices, a triangulated intersection may be estimated thereby estimatingthe location of the communication device 610.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment 700 of connectivitybetween a wireless communication device and various other communicationdevices via a network segment and/or other communication paths.

A wireless communication device 710 may be located within a region orvicinity serviced by an AP 720 b. Via the AP 720 b or via anothercommunication link (e.g., network segment 799, which may be asatellite/global positioning system (GPS) communication link, anInternet wide area network (WAN), WLAN, and/or cable system), thewireless communication device 710 may also communicate with other APs720 and 720 b, and the wireless communication device 710 may also accessa remote database (D) 730), which may include a local map 730 a or awide-area map 730 b (e.g., such as a nationwide map) corresponding toparticular locations of APs. For example, when the wirelesscommunication device receives a communication from the AP a720 b (e.g.,a beacon and then extracts the MAC address there from), the wirelesscommunication device 710 may then access the DB 730 to retrieve thelocation associated with the AP 720 b (e.g., by comparing the extractedMAC address to one of the maps within the DB 730). Alternatively, thewireless communication device 710 may retrieve and download such listsof AP locations from the DB 730 before extracting a MAC address from acommunication received from the AP 720 b.

The firmware of such a wireless communication device may be implementedto schedule when to look for such WLAN AP/IEEE 802.11 beacons. Theformat of a management frame (of which, the beacon is one type) isillustrated below). Approximately 1 beacon is transmitted per 100 ms(typical), but the beacon can be delayed by a few milli-seconds if theAP is completing a transaction with another wireless communicationdevice/wireless station (STA). To perform effective receipt andprocessing of beacons provided by a WLAN AP, there is only a need toreceive 1 beacon (i.e., the very first one), so there is not necessarilyany benefit to recording the embedded timestamp information and beaconinterval info to help with BT coexistence (e.g., to narrow the searchwindow for future beacon transmissions from the same WLAN AP).

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment 800 of format of amanagement frame. For LBS service identification, the only informationneeded from the beacon frame is the WLAN AP's MAC address. This MACaddress is the ‘fingerprint’ of the AP and is all that is really neededfor LBS database (at least those based on or with respect to thelocation of the WLAN AP), i.e. the database associates the GPScoordinates of the AP with its MAC address.

Moreover, RSSI information may also be useful, for example, if there aremultiple APs being used for triangulation, etc. such as depicted hereinwith respect to FIG. 6.

After the hardware has indicated that it has detected a beacon, and thehardware then dumps all the bits (e.g., as few as approximately 400 bitsor as long as approximately 2000 bits) to memory, the firmware can takeover and do the CRC check and then extract the MAC address informationthere from. It is noted tote that the beacon frame body length isvariable because as the IEEE 802.11 specification has evolved to higherrates and a richer feature set, more information elements have beenadded to the frame body, for the newer STAs to exploit the addedcapabilities.

FIG. 9A, FIG. 9B, FIG. 10A, FIG. 10B, FIG. 11A, FIG. 11B, FIG. 12A, andFIG. 12B, illustrates various embodiments of methods that may beperformed within a wireless communication device to process receivedcommunications.

Referring to method 900 of FIG. 9A, the method 900 operates within awireless communication device and begins by receiving beacon(s) from AP(WiFi/WLAN), as shown in a block 910. The method 900 continues byprocessing beacon(s) to determine MAC address (and/or RSSI) there from,as shown in a block 920.

The method 900 then operates by determining location of AP based on MACaddress (and/or RSSI) associated therewith, as shown in a block 930.These operations as depicted in blocks 910, 920, and 930 may generallybe referred to as operations within a wireless communication device, asshown in a block 905 (see FIG. 9).

The method 900 continues by based on determined location of AP,identifying one or more wireless services provided within vicinity, asshown in a block 940. The method 900 continues by employing the wirelesscommunication device to use the one or more identified wireless servicesprovided within vicinity, as shown in a block 950.

Referring to method 901 of FIG. 9B, the method 901 begins by performingthe operations within a wireless communication device, as shown in ablock 905 (see FIG. 9).

The method 901 then operates by estimating location of wirelesscommunication device based on location of AP, as shown in a block 941.Based on estimated location of wireless communication device, the method901 then operates by identifying one or more wireless services providedat or near location of wireless communication device, as shown in ablock 951. The method 901 continues by employing the wirelesscommunication device to use the one or more identified wireless servicesprovided at or near location of wireless communication device, as shownin a block 961.

Referring to method 1000 of FIG. 10A, the method 1000 begins byperforming the operations within a wireless communication device, asshown in a block 905 (see FIG. 9).

The method 901 then operates by making first estimate of location ofwireless communication device based on location of AP, as shown in ablock 1040. Within the wireless communication device, the method 1000continues by, employing an additional location service to make secondestimate of location of wireless communication device, as shown in ablock 1050. The method 1000 then operates by combining first estimateand second estimate to make third estimate of location of wirelesscommunication device, as shown in a block 1060.

Based on estimated third location of wireless communication device, themethod 1000 continues by identifying one or more wireless servicesprovided at or near location of wireless communication device, as shownin a block 1070. The method 1000 continues by employing the wirelesscommunication device to use the one or more identified wireless servicesprovided at or near the location of wireless communication device, asshown in a block 1080.

Referring to method 1001 of FIG. 10B, within a wireless communicationdevice, the method 1001 begins by receiving first beacon(s) from firstAP (WiFi/WLAN), as shown in a block 1011. The method 1001 then operatesby within the wireless communication device, receiving second beacon(s)from second AP (WiFi/WLAN), as shown in a block 1021.

The method 1001 continues by processing first beacon(s) to determinefirst MAC address and first RSSI of first AP, as shown in a block 1031.The method 1001 then operates by determining location of first AP basedon first MAC address and first RSSI associated therewith, as shown in ablock 1041.

The method 1001 then continues by processing second beacon(s) todetermine second MAC address and second RSSI of second AP, as shown in ablock 1051. The method 1001 then operates by determining location ofsecond AP based on second MAC address and second RSSI associatedtherewith, as shown in a block 1061.

The method 1001 then continues by employing location of second AP, firstRSSI, location of second AP, second RSSI to estimating location ofwireless communication device, as shown in a block 1071. Based ondetermined location of wireless communication device, the method 1001then operates by identifying (and using) one or more wireless servicesprovided at or near the location of wireless communication device, asshown in a block 1081.

Referring to method 1100 of FIG. 11A, from a wireless communicationdevice [that has TX functionality], the method 1100 begins bytransmitting probe request(s), as shown in a block 1110. The method 1100continues by receiving one or more probe response(s) from one or moreAPs (WiFi/WLAN), as shown in a block 1120.

The method 1100 then operates by processing probe response(s) from theone or more APs to determine MAC addresses (and/or RSSIs) associatedtherewith, as shown in a block 1130.

The method 1100 continues by determining locations of one or more APsbased on MAC addresses (and/or RSSIs) associated therewith, as shown ina block 1140. Based on determined locations of one or more APs, themethod 1100 then operates by identifying one or more wireless servicesprovided within vicinity, as shown in a block 1150. The method 1100continues by employing the wireless communication device to use the oneor more identified wireless services provided within vicinity, as shownin a block 1160.

Referring to method 1101 of FIG. 11B, the method 1101 provides a meansby which speeding up the acquisition of the SSID information may be madevia probe requests. For example, if a user has just powered up awireless communication device (e.g., a phone), and the user wants toquickly to find out which APs are present in the vicinity, the wirelesscommunication device could send probe requests on the WLAN centerfrequencies and receive probe responses from the nearby APs (the proberesponse format is almost identical to that of a beacon).

With this variation of a wireless communication device in providingprobe requests (i.e., having TX capability), however, it is noted thatsuch a wireless communication device is no longer a passive, IEEE 802.11sniffer type of device (i.e., that includes no TX capability). In suchan embodiment, there may be a need to implement a CSMA/CA protocol(i.e., to decode the NAVs to figure out when a probe request may betransmitted).

Also, there may be some WiFi Alliance certification issues encounteredif a subset of the IEEE 802.11 specification is implemented andcommunication are attempted in accordance with standard WLAN APs. It isnoted that the passive WLAN scans on all 11 (or 13) WLAN centerfrequencies are typically very slow. In contrast, the co-located GPS maysynchronize faster than the WiFi-based coarse positioning. Practicallyspeaking, in some applications, it may not be worth the cost to addactive scanning and 1 Mbps WiFi transmit capability within such awireless communication device (e.g., the protocol capability as well asTX path modifications to allow the transmitting of probe requests).

Referring to method 1101 of FIG. 11B, the method 1101 begins, during afirst time, by configuring wireless communication (1st configuration)device to receive beacon(s) from AP (WiFi/WLAN), as shown in a block1111. This may involve employing 1^(st) set of filter coefficient valuesfor BT communications, as shown in a block 1111 a. This may also involveperforming employing SYNC block circuitry (e.g., Barkerspreading/strongest signal path), as shown in a block 1111 b.

The method 1101 then operates by determining location of AP based on MACaddress (and/or RSSI) associated therewith, as shown in a block 1121.

Based on determined location of the AP, the method 1101 continues byidentifying one or more BT services provided within vicinity, as shownin a block 1131.

During a second time, the method 1101 then operates by, configuringwireless communication (1^(st) configuration) device to use theidentified one or more BT services provided within vicinity, as shown ina block 1141. In some embodiments, this may involve employing 2^(nd) setof filter coefficient values for BT communications, as shown in a block1141 a (compare to operations of block 111 a).

Referring to method 1200 of FIG. 12A, within a wireless communicationdevice, the method 1200 begins by receiving beacon(s) from AP(WiFi/WLAN), as shown in a block 1210.

The method 1200 continues by processing beacon(s) to determine MACaddress and RSSI there from, as shown in a block 1220. The method 1200then operates by determining location of AP based on MAC addressassociated therewith, as shown in a block 1230.

The method 1200 continues by making first estimate of location ofwireless communication device based on location of AP, as shown in ablock 1240. Based on the RSSI, the method 1200 then operates bymodifying (refining) first estimate of location of wirelesscommunication device thereby generating second estimate of location ofwireless communication device, as shown in a block 1250.

Referring to method 1201 of FIG. 12B, within a wireless communicationdevice, the method 1201 begins by storing mapping of locations of APs,as shown in a block 1211. In an alternative embodiment, within thewireless communication device, the method 1210 operates by retrievingmapping of locations of APs form DB (e.g., via network segment), asshown in a block 1211 a.

The method 1201 then operates by determining location of an AP based onits MAC address identified within mapped (stored and/or retrieved), asshown in a block 1221. Based on determined location of AP, the method1201 continues by identifying one or more wireless services providedwithin vicinity, as shown in a block 1231. The method 1201 then operatesby employing the wireless communication device to use the one or moreidentified wireless services provided within vicinity, as shown in ablock 1241.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment 1300 of awireless communication device. The wireless communication device 1310includes a first radio circuitry 1311 (having TX and RX capability) anda second radio circuitry 1321 (having only RX capability). The firstradio circuitry 1311 is operative to communicate with a communicationdevice 1370 a, and the first radio circuitry 1321 is operative toreceive communications from communication device 1370 b.

In some embodiments, the wireless communication device 1310 includes alocation determination circuitry 1330 (which may include a memory module1330 a that is operative to store one or more maps, database components,etc.). The location determination circuitry 1330 may communicate with alocation service communication device 1370 c.

Each of these radio circuitries is coupled to a baseband (BB) processingcircuitry 1331 that is operative to perform various digital signalprocessing functions as well.

One or more of the components within the wireless communication device1310 may be implemented within a single integrated circuit 1310 a, orthey may alternatively be implemented in two or more integratedcircuits, and/or one or more printed circuit boards. The wirelesscommunication device 1310 is operative to support bi-directionalcommunications comporting with a first communication protocol using thefirst radio circuitry 1311. The wireless communication device 1310 isoperative to support uni-directional communications comporting with asecond communication protocol using the second radio circuitry 1321.

The baseband processing circuitry 1331, coupled to the first radiocircuitry 1311 and the second radio circuitry 1321, that is operative toprocess the uni-directional communications comporting with the secondcommunication protocol thereby extracting a media access control (MAC)address there from. This MAC address may correspond to at least oneadditional communication device that transmits the uni-directionalcommunications to the wireless communication device 1310. In someembodiments, these uni-directional communications may be beaconstransmitted from a WLAN AP.

This MAC address associated with at least one additional transmittingwireless communication device is used to make an estimate of a locationof the wireless communication device 1310 and/or the at least oneadditional transmitting wireless communication device.

Based on the estimate of the location of the wireless communicationdevice 1310 and/or the at least one additional transmitting wirelesscommunication device, the baseband processing circuitry 1331 identifiesat least one location based service available for use by the first radiocircuitry 1311 of the wireless communication device 1310.

In some embodiments, the baseband processing circuitry 1331 is operativeto process the uni-directional communications comporting with the secondcommunication protocol thereby calculating a received signal strengthindication (RSSI) measure associated therewith. The estimate of thelocation of the wireless communication device 1310 and/or the estimateof the location of the at least one additional transmitting wirelesscommunication device is derived from both the MAC address and the RSSImeasure (i.e., not the MAC address alone, but using both the MAC addressand the RSSI measure [which may be employed in accordance with rangingoperations]).

When multiple communications are received from multiple additionalwireless communication devices, and multiple respective RSSI measuresare calculated, triangulation processing may be employed when three ormore communications are received to identify a triangulated intersectionthat is corresponds to an estimate of the location of the wirelesscommunication device 1310.

In some embodiments, the first radio circuitry 1311 is a Bluetoothtransceiver circuitry, and the second radio circuitry 1321 is a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN) receiver circuitry. The uni-directionalcommunications comporting with the second communication protocol mayinclude a WLAN beacon transmitted from a WLAN access point (AP).

When implemented within a particular embodiment, the locationdetermination circuitry 1330 is operative to compare the MAC address toa number of MAC addresses (e.g., such as retrieved from a remotedatabase, stored within the memory 1330 a, from a combination thereof,etc.). Based upon a favorable comparison of the MAC address with one ofthe MAC addresses (e.g., matching up with one another), the locationdetermination circuitry 1330 is operative to estimate a location of thewireless communication device 1310 and/or a location of thecommunication device 1370 b. An estimate of the location of thecommunication device 1370 b (that is firstly calculated) may be employedto make an estimate of the location of the wireless communication device1310.

It is noted that the various modules and/or circuitries (e.g., encodingmodules, decoding modules, receiver circuitries, transmittercircuitries, etc.) described herein may be a single processing device ora plurality of processing devices. Such a processing device may be amicroprocessor, micro-controller, digital signal processor,microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array,programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals(analog and/or digital) based on operational instructions. Theoperational instructions may be stored in a memory. The memory may be asingle memory device or a plurality of memory devices. Such a memorydevice may be a read-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory,non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, and/orany device that stores digital information. It is also noted that whenthe processing module implements one or more of its functions via astate machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logiccircuitry, the memory storing the corresponding operational instructionsis embedded with the circuitry comprising the state machine, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry. In such anembodiment, a memory stores, and a processing module coupled theretoexecutes, operational instructions corresponding to at least some of thesteps and/or functions illustrated and/or described herein.

The present invention has also been described above with the aid ofmethod steps illustrating the performance of specified functions andrelationships thereof. The boundaries and sequence of these functionalbuilding blocks and method steps have been arbitrarily defined hereinfor convenience of description. Alternate boundaries and sequences canbe defined so long as the specified functions and relationships areappropriately performed. Any such alternate boundaries or sequences arethus within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.

The present invention has been described above with the aid offunctional building blocks illustrating the performance of certainsignificant functions. The boundaries of these functional buildingblocks have been arbitrarily defined for convenience of description.Alternate boundaries could be defined as long as the certain significantfunctions are appropriately performed. Similarly, flow diagram blocksmay also have been arbitrarily defined herein to illustrate certainsignificant functionality. To the extent used, the flow diagram blockboundaries and sequence could have been defined otherwise and stillperform the certain significant functionality. Such alternatedefinitions of both functional building blocks and flow diagram blocksand sequences are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimedinvention.

One of average skill in the art will also recognize that the functionalbuilding blocks, and other illustrative blocks, modules and componentsherein, can be implemented as illustrated or by discrete components,application specific integrated circuits, processors executingappropriate software and the like or any combination thereof.

Moreover, although described in detail for purposes of clarity andunderstanding by way of the aforementioned embodiments, the presentinvention is not limited to such embodiments. It will be obvious to oneof average skill in the art that various changes and modifications maybe practiced within the spirit and scope of the invention, as limitedonly by the scope of the appended claims.

1. An apparatus, comprising: a first radio circuitry that is operativeto support bi-directional communications comporting with a firstcommunication protocol; a second radio circuitry that is operative toreceive uni-directional communications comporting with a secondcommunication protocol; and a baseband processing circuitry, coupled tothe first radio circuitry and the second radio circuitry, that isoperative to process the uni-directional communications comporting withthe second communication protocol thereby extracting a media accesscontrol (MAC) address there from; and wherein: based on an estimate of alocation of the apparatus derived from the MAC address, the basebandprocessing circuitry identifies at least one location based serviceavailable for use by the first radio circuitry of the apparatus.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein: the first radio receiver circuitry andthe second radio receiver circuitry are implemented within a singleintegrated circuit.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the firstradio circuitry is a Bluetooth transceiver circuitry; and the secondradio circuitry is a wireless local area network (WLAN) receivercircuitry.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the second radiocircuitry is a wireless local area network (WLAN) receiver circuitry;and the uni-directional communications comporting with the secondcommunication protocol include a WLAN beacon transmitted from a WLANaccess point (AP).
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: alocation determination circuitry, coupled to the baseband processingcircuitry, that is operative to compare the MAC address to a pluralityof MAC addresses; and wherein: based upon a favorable comparison of theMAC address with one of the plurality of MAC addresses, the locationdetermination circuitry is operative to estimate a location of at leastone additional apparatus that transmits the uni-directionalcommunications comporting with the second communication protocol to theapparatus.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a locationdetermination circuitry, coupled to the baseband processing circuitry,that is operative to compare the MAC address to a plurality of MACaddresses; and wherein: based upon a favorable comparison of the MACaddress with one of the plurality of MAC addresses, the locationdetermination circuitry is operative to estimate a location of at leastone additional apparatus that transmits the uni-directionalcommunications comporting with the second communication protocol to theapparatus; and based on the estimated location of the at least oneadditional apparatus, the location determination circuitry is operativeto estimate the location of the apparatus.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein: the baseband processing circuitry is operative to process theuni-directional communications comporting with the second communicationprotocol thereby calculating a received signal strength indication(RSSI) measure associated therewith; and the estimate of the location ofthe apparatus is derived from both the MAC address and the RSSI measure.8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a locationdetermination circuitry coupled to the baseband processing circuitry;and wherein: the MAC address is a first MAC address; the unidirectionalcommunications comporting with the second communication protocol is afirst beacon transmitted from a first wireless local area network (WLAN)access point (AP); the baseband processing circuitry is operative toprocess the first beacon thereby calculating a first received signalstrength indication (RSSI) measure associated therewith; the secondradio circuitry that is operative to receive a second beacon transmittedfrom a second WLAN AP and a third beacon transmitted from a third WLANAP; the baseband processing circuitry is operative to process the secondbeacon thereby extracting a second MAC address there from andcalculating a second RSSI measure associated therewith; the basebandprocessing circuitry is operative to process the third beacon therebyextracting a third MAC address there from and calculating a third RSSImeasure associated therewith; the location determination circuitry isoperative to compare each of the first MAC address, the second MACaddress, and the third MAC address to a plurality of MAC addresses;based upon a favorable comparison of the first MAC address with a firstof the plurality of MAC addresses, the location determination circuitryis operative to estimate a location of the first WLAN AP; based upon afavorable comparison of the second MAC address with a second of theplurality of MAC addresses, the location determination circuitry isoperative to estimate a location of the second WLAN AP; based upon afavorable comparison of the third MAC address with a third of theplurality of MAC addresses, the location determination circuitry isoperative to estimate a location of the third WLAN AP; and based on theestimated locations the first WLAN AP, the second WLAN AP, the thirdWLAN AP, and based on the first RSSI measure, the second RSSI measure,and the third RSSI measure, the location determination circuitry isoperative to estimate the location of the apparatus.
 9. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein: the apparatus is a portable wireless communicationdevice.
 10. An apparatus, comprising: a first radio circuitry that isoperative to support bi-directional communications comporting with afirst communication protocol; a second radio circuitry that is operativeto receive uni-directional communications comporting with a secondcommunication protocol; and a baseband processing circuitry, coupled tothe first radio circuitry and the second radio circuitry, that isoperative to process the uni-directional communications comporting withthe second communication protocol thereby extracting a media accesscontrol (MAC) address there from; a location determination circuitry,coupled to the baseband processing circuitry, that is operative tocompare the MAC address to a plurality of MAC addresses; and wherein:based upon a favorable comparison of the MAC address with one of theplurality of MAC addresses, the location determination circuitry isoperative to estimate a location of at least one additional apparatusthat transmits the uni-directional communications comporting with thesecond communication protocol to the apparatus; and based on theestimate of the location of the at least one additional apparatus, thebaseband processing circuitry identifies at least one location basedservice available for use by the first radio circuitry of the apparatus.11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein: based on the estimated locationof the at least one additional apparatus, the location determinationcircuitry is operative to estimate a location of the apparatus; andbased on the estimate of the location of the apparatus, the basebandprocessing circuitry identifies at least one location based serviceavailable for use by the apparatus.
 12. The apparatus of claim 10,wherein: the first radio circuitry is a Bluetooth transceiver circuitry;and the second radio circuitry is a wireless local area network (WLAN)receiver circuitry.
 13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein: the secondradio circuitry is a wireless local area network (WLAN) receivercircuitry; and the uni-directional communications comporting with thesecond communication protocol include a WLAN beacon transmitted from aWLAN access point (AP).
 14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein: thebaseband processing circuitry is operative to process theuni-directional communications comporting with the second communicationprotocol thereby calculating a received signal strength indication(RSSI) measure associated therewith; and based on the estimated locationof the at least one additional apparatus and the RSSI measure, thelocation determination circuitry is operative to estimate a location ofthe apparatus.
 15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein: the apparatus isa portable wireless communication device.
 16. An apparatus, comprising:a first radio circuitry that is operative to support bi-directionalcommunications comporting with a first communication protocol; a secondradio circuitry that is operative to receive uni-directionalcommunications comporting with a second communication protocol; abaseband processing circuitry, coupled to the first radio circuitry andthe second radio circuitry, that is operative to process theuni-directional communications comporting with the second communicationprotocol thereby extracting a media access control (MAC) address therefrom; and a location determination circuitry, coupled to the basebandprocessing circuitry, that is operative to compare the MAC address to aplurality of MAC addresses; and wherein: the baseband processingcircuitry is operative to process the uni-directional communicationscomporting with the second communication protocol thereby calculating areceived signal strength indication (RSSI) measure associated therewith;based upon a favorable comparison of the MAC address with one of theplurality of MAC addresses, the location determination circuitry isoperative to estimate a location of at least one additional apparatusthat transmits the uni-directional communications comporting with thesecond communication protocol to the apparatus; based on the estimate ofthe location of the at least one additional apparatus and the RSSImeasure, the location determination circuitry is operative to estimate alocation of the apparatus; and based on the estimate of the location ofthe apparatus, the baseband processing circuitry identifies at least onelocation based service available for use by the first radio circuitry ofthe apparatus.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein: the first radioreceiver circuitry and the second radio receiver circuitry areimplemented within a single integrated circuit.
 18. The apparatus ofclaim 16, wherein: the first radio circuitry is a Bluetooth transceivercircuitry; and the second radio circuitry is a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN) receiver circuitry.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16,wherein: the second radio circuitry is a wireless local area network(WLAN) receiver circuitry; and the uni-directional communicationscomporting with the second communication protocol include a WLAN beacontransmitted from a WLAN access point (AP).
 20. The apparatus of claim16, wherein: the apparatus is a portable wireless communication device.